Ahead of its anticipated round-the-world trip scheduled for 2015, a solar-powered plane took its maiden voyage after an historic two-hour flight - yet more headway in developing aircraft that don’t need fossil fuel.

The Solar Impulse 2 aircraft, with German test pilot Markus
Scherdel inside the cockpit, took off from an airfield in
Payerne, Switzerland at 03:35 GMT (04:35 BST; 05:35 CEST),
climbing to just over 6,000ft (1,800m).

The carbon-fiber aircraft, which was first displayed to the
public on April 9, has a wingspan of 72 meters (236 ft) - wider
than a Boeing 747 jumbo jet – and weighs just 2.4 tons. It
contains more than 17,000 solar cells inserted on top of the
wings, which allow the vehicle to achieve a maximum speed of
140km/h (90mph).

Scherdel reported some early vibrations inside the aircraft, but
overall the inaugural test flight was considered a success, with
the plane performing a number of maneuvers to prove aircraft
handling.

The Solar Impulse 2 is a larger, improved version of the aircraft
that flew across the United States last year with pilots Bertrand
Piccard and Andre Borschberg at the controls.

"It's a great day for all the team of Solar Impulse,"
Piccard told BBC News.

"An airplane like this is absolutely unique. And for the
first time in history, we have an airplane that is flying with no
fuel day and night, showing the incredible potential of the clean
technologies - all these technologies that the world can also use
in order to reduce the dependency to fossil fuel and to be
cleaner and solve a lot of problems of pollution,” Piccard
added.

During the day, the solar cells will recharge lithium batteries,
which can then be used to keep the plane’s propellers turning
through the night.

The original Solar Impulse set several world records, including
the longest manned solar-powered flight at 26 hours, as well as
the greatest distance covered on a piloted solar-powered flight
(Pilot-less solar-powered vehicles can stay in the air for weeks
at a time).

Although the team of Solar Impulse 2 is celebrating its maiden
voyage, next year’s planned flight around the world – which will
require several weeks’ to accomplish – will present a far greater
challenge.